In the Beginning
by xrz
Summary: The mercs weren't always team or team players. In the beginning they hated each other. This is the story of how their adventures began.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Valve owns TF2.

Chapter 1:In the Beginning

The middle of nowhere- Badlands, New Mexico, 1960.

The train had been cruising along the tracks- that were useless since they connected nothing at all- for hours and still Lawrence Mundy was alone. Lawrence was fine with that though, in fact he preferred it that way. He spent most of his time alone in the outback anyway back home in Australia. Still it was unnerving that the train was empty, there were nine cars apart from his counting the front one, and still no one had come out of the adjacent one-only one since he was in the back-. Lawrence shrugged and returned to the window. Just then the door opened and a tall elderly man with glasses and graying black hair came through the door. The man smiled and in a German accent spoke, "Ah, so vhere is somevone else on vis train". He motioned to a seat, "Do you mind if I sit". Lawrence shook his head and the man sat down across from him. Lawrence looked away from the man and then back as if thinking, then stuck out his hand, "Lawrence, Lawrence Mundy". The man shook his hand, "Lukas Klug" he paused for a moment, "so Lawrence are you also here on contract for vone, Redmond Mann? Lawrence nodded, "yep, I woke up one morning and there was a letter taped to the door of my camper, but if you're a colleague then you should now my work code name: Sniper. Lukas looked at Lawrence with a look that said Oh good another test subject. "Zen I should tell you I am Medic", at that moment a man wearing a suit and balaclava appeared out of thin air, "well gentleman", he said in a French accent, "I am the Spy".

Medic and Sniper jumped out of their seat, one drawing a bush knife and the other a bone saw. Spy simply laughed and lit a cigarette. "If you think you could actually hurt me, you are very much mistaken, and anyway we are working together on this project of Redmond Manns". "How do you do that?", Sniper asked sitting back down. Spy tapped his watch and vanished apart from a small puff of smoke from his cigarette. Spy reappeared smiling looking smugly at his team mates' stunned faces, "now back to the previous subject". Medic sank back in his seat and considered Spy before answering, "Yes zhat is a good question, how can ve as zhe letter says fight a war and not be hurt"? Sniper shrugged, "maybe that's some'thin to do with you mate" he said looking at medic. Medic paled, moving a closer to the door. Spy looked curiously, "What is wrong doctor". "How could zey know about zhe medi-gun". The wot' gun"? "My prototype healing ray". Spy was about to comment when a southern accent interjected, "A healin ray now this I need to see".

When it is said men, the two people who walked in could better be described as a man and an it. The man was short and bald wearing, overalls, goggles and a hard hat. The other could not be identified through it is asbestos suit. The it said, "mmmmpppph mmmmpppph mmmphhh". Sniper looked at it, "your pyro and engineer, who is Dell Conagher", the thing nodded. Over the next couple hours a drunken Scotsman, an obnoxious Bostonian teenager, a huge Russian, and an insane American who instantly started fighting with medic, who he called a Nazi. Introductions were given out, the scot was Tavish Degroot or Demo man, the kid was Cornelius Thomson or Scout, the Russian was Vladimir or Heavy Weapons Guy, and the patriot was Jane Doe or Solider. Over the next few hours they told about what they did and what their job was to be. Then a voice sounded out as the train stopped, "Mercenaries grab your gear and proceed to the red fort. As Sniper debarked the train into what was declared by a large sign to be Tuefort fortress- New Mexico, he pondered that though he wanted to see who else was on the train and whose his teammates were, he had not expected a group of nutjobs.


	2. Chapter 2-Redmond Mann

Disclaimer: I do not own TF2

Sorry for the short update I didn't have much time to write.

Chapter 2- Briefing

As the mercs approached their new base they realized it was not one but two bases with a bridge connecting them. As instructed they followed the signs into the red building. Unsure of what to do they loitered aimlessly in the entry room until the door to the rest of the base opened and a short woman with black hair walked out. She adjusted her glasses and addressed the mercs, "Welcome to Tuefort gentleman, my name is Miss Pauling and I will be the relay for your instructions well you are working for TF industries, please follow me to the lounge for your briefing". As they followed her through the base Scout kept up a constant stream of words and date requests all of which were ignored. Miss Pauling gave them a walkthrough of the base as they went. They passed a kitchen, a planning room, 3 bathrooms, a command room, a dining room, and something called the Respawn room before they reached the lounge. The room contained a sofa, phone, pool table, a regular table with poker chips on it, some chairs, a pinball machine, and a TV. "Alright gentleman here we are sit down were you can see the television and we'll begin". She flicked on the TV once all the mercs were seated. It showed a picture of an incredibly old man dressed in red and hooked up to some kind of machine. The man waited a minute and began to speak.

_Gentleman I am your employer Redmond Mann, I will know answer what questions you most likely have and Miss Pauling will answer the rest. You are here to help me take over the gravel fields by force. Sounds easy, nine of the best mercenaries in the world against unarmed miners, but it is not that easy, you will be facing my brothers army. __**Nine of clones of you. **__My brother like always managed to find DNA samples. They are different though somehow they are clones who have lived as long as you with the same but slightly different lives. You are not the first mercenaries to fight this fight. This war has gone on for 35 years. But this is the first time clones are involved, before my brother just hired other men, now he's hired you. None of you I actually I know of, except Mr. Conager whose grandfather worked for Blutarch Mann and built him and me these machines keeping us alive. You will fight these clones until either my brother surrenders or I do or one of us is destroyed. As to how you will not die my answer is simply you will die, but your bodies will be teleported here and you will come back to life in the Respawn room. Now prepare your selves to fight for victory, for no clones, and for Reliable Excavations and Demolitions!_

**Next episode will conclude the briefing and the fight will start in chapter 4.**


	3. Pyro's Secret and Assault base ball

Disclaimer: I do not own TF2

Miss Pauling shut off the TV and turned to the mercs, "Any questions"? Sniper raised his hand and Miss Pauling nodded for him to start talking. "How much are we getting paid for this"? "20,000". With that the team started to grumble about how they'd been paid much more for other jobs. At this Miss Pauling smiled, "well, this is a war and you fight five days a week and get paid for days fought". Scouts jaw dropped and he jumped up and began to dash around yelling like a madman, Solider was silent, Demo man put down his bottle and Heavy his sandvich, the rest just looked dumbstruck. Seeing that there were no more questions Miss Pauling walked to the and as she walked through it said, "Oh, and the fight begins Monday. You have to days to get acquainted with the and each other".

After five minutes of Scouts idiocy and the others being dumbstruck, the rest of what Miss Pauling had said sunk in. Almost simultaneously they jumped up and dashed madly to choose rooms, except Sniper- who like Engineer was asked to bring his car- walked out to his van and prepared a bed in there. Inside Scout was leading the pack and quickly found the biggest room, but was evicted by Heavy. Medic took the room next to the med bay, Solider in the smallest between Medic's and Heavy's rooms on the second floor. Engineer slept downstairs in the garage's side room. Demo and Spy got the last two rooms on the top floor leaving Scout and Pyro to decide who got the last one downstairs. Scout and Pyro stood outside the small room which like the rest had red wall paper, a dresser, bed, and cabinet. Scout braced himself for a fight, but to his surprise Pyro simply mumbled something like, you take it, and walked away. Pyro walked out onto the battlements of Tuefort and hopped down; it walked over to Snipers van and knocked.

A few minutes later a bleary eyed Sniper opened the door. Pyro mumbled something and Sniper looked surprised, "You want to talk". Pyro mumbled which to Sniper sounded like, "I just wanted to get to know people before Monday and you seem the most trustworthy, I have something I need to tell someone before I go crazy". Sniper took a step back and motioned Pyro in, "Right, I'll keep whatever you want to tell me secret". Pyro sat down on the small couch and sniper on the bed. With a shaky hand, Pyro removed her mask, her red ponytail popping up from the confines of her mask, she had blue eyes and several large scars across her face but not enough to make her look ugly.. Snipers mouth dropped open in shock for the second time that day, "You're a Sheila"! Pyro smiled, "if you mea n a girl then yeah, my names Alice". Sniper sat back, "But wuy tell me"? Pyro shrugged, "I needed to tell someone after two years of keeping it secret, where going to be working together for a long time, and you seem the most likely to keep a secret". "Fair enough I won't tell anyone, but why has it been a secret for two years". "Well you see, I'm from Detroit-nastiest place ever- and I'm one of the few criminals who got stopped there. They thought I was just an arsonist until I was found playing with a lighter in a cell two days later. They then moved me to a mental asylum-this was all when I was sixteen- and kept me there for about a year and then released me. It wasn't the first on id been in since when- and kept me there for about a year and then released me. It wasn't the first on id been in since when my parents found out I was a pyro at age 7, they turned me over and told me I couldn't come back until I was over it, so when all my stuff was out I burned down the house". She shivered at this and readjusted her position on the couch. "I thought my parents were out, but it turns out that my dad was inside. So I served two years, and then they told me I could go. They stuck me in an orphanage since mom told them that shed kill me if she ever saw me again. I lived there for 7 years- no one wanted a firebug- then I accidently set the place on fire and four people died and 13 were injured as a result. So after another year of useless mental care they let me go, but when I got to another orphanage, I was adopted by a former pyro- he was thin and Australian like you, which is probably why I feel safe telling you this- he could tell I wasn't over my mania, but instead of sending me back, he found ways for me to release it safely. He was better to me than my real dad, who was a drunk and gave me all these scars- pointing to her face, arms, and back- the one that is most unpleasant are the ones on my face which are from a broken vodka bottle. My new dad- his name is Andrew- was really nice to me and still sends me letters, I never move out of his house .He helped me raise money, but I didn't tell him the money was for my Pyro gear. After that I spent my days doing mercenary work and pretending to be a guy. I rose quickly through the hierarchy, until after one job I found the letter from on the doorstep; I told Dad I got a job in New Mexico and you now the rest". Sniper sat for a second before answering, "More interestin' then my life but in a bad way, but don't worry I'll keep this between us". He stood up and walked out the door, "I'm guessing someone else took the last bed room so fell free to sleep on the bed, I'll use the roof". With that he walked out leaving Pyro inside.

The next morning the mercs were woken by Engineer, who came to their rooms and woke them for breakfast before waking Sniper. Engineer walked out to the van, and to his surprise found Sniper on the roof. "Sniper git down here I made the team breakfast". Sniper groggily swung off the van and opened the door, "Pyro wake up". "Why was Pyro in your van". "Scout took the last room so I lent Pyro the van till we set something up". They followed Engineer in and found the rest of the team beginning to eat a huge batch of bacon and eggs. Sniper and Engineer sat down well Pyro defied all laws of physics and consumed the food through her masks and just stood there while the rest ate. After breakfast the team decided to create a schedule. After two hours, three fights, and twelve shouting matches, they finally established a meal schedule. Then they just sat in the lounge until Scout suggested they play baseball. Most of the team agreed apart from Solider and Spy who both gave in when Medic convinced them it was team building and bent the rules to allow weapons.

They trudged outside and assembled teams, which ended up being; Scout, Heavy, Solider, and Spy versus Medic, Sniper, Pyro, Demo man, and Engineer. Scouts team was up at bat first with Scout batting, Demo man was pitching, but after three balls he just loaded the ball into his grenade launcher and shot it at Scout, who smashed at Pyro, who used her flamethrowers air compressor to blast the ball hitting it in to Scouts head. Heavy struck out next but spy got to third base by cloaking and then running around the bases, only stopping when his cloak ran out. Scout then got a home run, but Heavy struck out and then the teams changed sides. Engineer hit first and would have gotten out, but he clubbed Spy with his wrench when he tried to tag him. Sniper shot the ball and Medic bunted filling the bases. Soldier then became pitcher using his rocket launcher. Demo man struck out but Pyro used her air compression and scored a homer. Only to be stopped when about to reach home by Scout attacking her till the others got the ball. Sniper then shot the ball while the others ran but was stopped when Spy attacked him delaying him and causing two out. Engineer then rigged the first base to teleport the runner back to home. Soldier somehow dug a tunnel around the bases, which was blocked by Demo man's stickys. This continued till dinner. After that Pyro made a room and the team went to bed eager for the fight.


	4. 1st day on the job

_I do not own TF2. Sorry about the delay I had other projects for other things to work on. Scouts role in the story now increases._

"Hello gentleman, I am the Administrator, I will run this battle, I will explain tonight but in the meantime. CAPTURE THE ENEMY INTELLIGENCE". The mercs yelled there battle calls and charged out of the ready room.

-1 hour earlier

Sniper climbed out of bed to the sound off some large alarm clock in the base. He donned his Mann Co. issued shirt and pants, before donning his usual vest, hat, and finally sunglasses. Then he grabbed his gun and headed over to the base. When he arrived he found Engineer making bacon and eggs as the others slowly trouped downstairs. They ate a quick breakfast with Pyro taking hers outside. When they finished, they went to the ready room and got ready for whatever the fight brought upon them. They waited for about twenty minutes holding their weapons loosely, until the door swung open and a voice rang out. "Hello gentleman, I am the Administrator, I will run this battle, I will explain tonight but in the meantime. CAPTURE THE ENEMY INTELLIGENCE". The mercs yelled there battle calls and charged out of the ready room.

-Present

Sniper ran quickly through the front half of the base which was open during the battle and climbed the watch tower where he could see both sides' fields. He quickly picked out his counterpart who was on the main wall. Redmond hadn't been lying, the enemy where clones, it somewhat disturbed Sniper but he saw the clone again and again. What frightened him more, was the army of Soldiers. With the help of Heavy he took them out. In excitement he jumped up yelling, "GET OUTSIDE N' CLEAN". Then a bullet blew open his head, tumbling him unto the floor near his coffee pot he put in the tower before going to bed. Disoriented and to his surprise Sniper opened his eyes in the ready room. As he got up a tube came out of the ceiling containing what was left of Heavy. The machine then healed the Heavy and released him onto the floor. He got groggily to his feet and looked curiously at Sniper who shrugged and left.

Heavy had charged out behind the Scout. They ran through the base onto the bridge where they met their counter parts. Scout fired several shots as he ran and pulled out his bat as he closed in. The blue did the same and they swung as they passed. Red jumped and went for the head, while Blue slid and went for a crippling blow to the legs. They both hit, Reds blow was fatal, but Blue still broke his leg. Then Scout ducked behind Heavy bringing the enemy's attention to him. Both giants opened fire but only Red survived severely injured. During the fight Scout had found a med pack, which he now held over a dying Heavy. "Want it? Well to bad its mine I don't need no team!" Then he sprinted away.

Scout was regretting killing his teammate, but only slightly. He sped through the Blue base to the Intel room. He was unchallenged until near his destination he rounded a corner and ran into a baseball bat. He saw the blue Scout, "But I killed you". "Yeah n' it hurt, a lot". Red pulled and fired at his foe who dodged and replied in kind with his sawed off shotgun he'd been issued that morning. He hadn't used a gun before but he was finding it simple. The Scouts ran through the base, (with red managing to grab the blue Intel) trading shots from both guns. Soon they ran out of ammo and just attacked with bats when the other came into range. This continued until they exited the base and Demoman blew them both to pieces and took the Intel from the bodies. He then headed towards the base only to be backstabbed by the blue Spy. Who was shot by the solider who in turn was killed by a faulty sentry. But after three hours of this Red captured the Intel. Then with all grumbling at each other but Sniper, Pyro, Medic, and Engineer who didn't join in the betrayal (nobody knew whether or not Spy had), limped inside to discuss the day.


	5. team building

_I do not own TF2_

The second day of his job at Mann Co. went even worse for Sniper. He and Pyro had bored themselves up in a side building and eliminated targets from there. This worked well till the Blue Demo threw a moltav into the building and smoked out Sniper. Sniper sprinted out right into the Blue Heavy. Sniper got to his feet in the ready room and trudged outside where he was immediately backstabbed, then killed by his teams Solider. Three hours and one failed battle later Sniper trudged into the med bay for headache medicine. When he entered, he found Medic sitting at a table with Spy and Engineer writing out a list. Medic looked up as he drew closer, "Ah Sniper, just ze man I vant'd to see". Engineer adjusted his chair, "were looking for some ways to start team building".

Sniper sighed and sunk into the chair, "That's goin a be a tough job with this crew." Medic nodded "my concern exactly". "So what are we going to do first" Engineer smiled (one of those insane near suicidal idea smiles). "We appoint the Solider as group trainer". Sniper face palmed, Spy smiled "Then we build a machine which makes our lives tied well it is equipped, Engineer will have the key. Then we show Scout how he needs teammates by sending him out alone to fight. We only await your agreement on this plan." Sniper shrugged "I'll go for it as long as I'm with Pyro". Medic nodded, "good, now then good night and sniper your med kit".

It seemed that Medic had told solider the plan the previous night, since he woke everyone at 5 am and made them run 3 miles. Then he allowed them a small breakfast and rushed them through prep and into the teleport, out to frontier which blue was attempting to bomb. As they did Engineer put them in their groups. Spy hated the battle that followed he was paired with scout who died more then most so spy got nowhere. Heavy and Medic died two or three times because of the enemy spy and sniper, when medic was building his charge. Soldier and Demoman stayed alive most of the battle apart from the times they gibbed themselves or got mowed down by blue heavy or pyro. Engineer was by himself, sniper and pyro died once from a spy on sniper . After a week of switching pairs everyone had improved but spy was more distant and scout was still somewhat self-centered. But on the positives Medic and Heavy were friends, same with soldier and Demoman. The two group system ended that weekend while the team ran up and down Offblast and did more training. But then Monday came the true test of their teamwork, a trip to Doomsday.

_Sorry for the short chapter I was busy and VG cats needs an update. Final chapter: the battle for doomsday. After that I'm writing a Mann versus Machine story about the end of the war and the team going their separate ways and some revealing their identities. Then a post tf2 story 10 years later. Please review._


	6. Chapter 6 Finale

I do not own TF2

_This is it, the end of IN THE BEGINNING. Next after this (all items are in order of release and timeline (This also includes who on which team is the original)):_

_Tf2. MVM_

_TF2 Epilogue_

_TF2: The Specialists _

_On with the story _

_DOOMSDAY_

**PLEASE REVIEW**

**Doomsday 1964**

"Twenty minutes till the fight ready yourselves." This announcement was useless, Red team was already geared for war. Pyro was practicing her melee combat with Scout, Medic was readying an ubercharge on Solider who was doing push-ups, Demo was becoming intoxicated, Heavy was making sandwiches, and Spy was writing in a journal, well Engineer cleaned his wrench. As for Sniper he was looking at old photos of the teams before them. They all seemed to have the same classes with only a little bit of change in gear. Though judging from the photos of battle the cloning started with the last generation of fighters. "Recover the Ausrtalium and send Poopy Joe into space." Sniper grabbed his rifle and sped out of the waiting room.

Scout sprinted through the gate whipping past the other members of his team. He loaded his scattergun and ran to the sign marked Australium. He ran into a short tunnel and on the other side and found his counterpart grabbing a briefcase off the ground and typed something on the lock. The container turned blue and the scout started off only to be clubbed by the RED. Scout grabbed the case and ran out of the area. He came directly to a huge rocket and stopped in awe. Well he was still the BLU spy materialized behind him.

Pyro groaned as she watched Scout fall; she ran forward and started her flamethrower. The BLU started pressing his cloak button, but like when he had the intelligence he couldn't hide. He went for his revolver but it was too late Pyro had reached him. Pyro ran into the tunnels torching the scout and came face to face with a heavy/medic. Pyro started to retreat knowing it was hopeless. But she smiled as she fell because behind the medic and the bear of a Russian she saw a man in a red suit wearing a paper mask appear from nowhere.

Spy stepped over the late Russian, casually flicking ashes off his cigarette. He picked up the brief case and strolled out of the tunnel handing the case too Heavy, he drew and fired through the window where the BLU sniper had been hiding. He then cloaked and ghosted off to where the BLU demo was slowly growing intoxicated. Spy grabbed his bottle and clubbing him with it pushed him off the tower. Spy reached the Launchpad after dealing with several other BLUs just in time for Heavy to reach it. He saw the rest of his teammates already there. Sniper was crouching on the ledge behind some crates on a folding chair with a coffee pot. Engineer was finishing a sentry, it most have been a new design since Spy had never seen one with mounted missile launchers. Engineer also had a Dispenser and teleporter with him in the tunnel entrance covering his back. Heavy was backing up to the platform as he was spinning up his minigun wellbeing healed by the Medic who was building up an Ubercharge. Scout was sprinting around the area shooting his scattergun in a Spy checking maneuver before refilling and repeating the action. Pyro was covering Sniper and Engineer. Demo was running from exit to exit setting up stickies and drinking. Solider was pacing around and yelling about how they would all get medals for their good work. Spy smiled, he still couldn't tolerate most of them but teamwork was essential and they were building that. Just then a slew of rockets shot over his head, he dashed to his teammates looking behind him, he saw a hoard of soldiers with the rest of the BLUs mixed in. "Gentlemen we have a problem ", he calmly said straightening his tie.

_**MONTAGE**_

"I am charged!"

"MMMMMMMMPPPPPPPPHHHHHHHHH!"

Rocket fire

Headshot, headshot, headshot, headshot.

"I never really was on your side."

Double jump, bat smash, scatter blast, spin in a circle firing pistol, then take out bat and, "BONK".

"**THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE**" beheading several enemies.

"BANG, you are dead. No big surprise".

"Teleporter down".

Suddenly the battle came to a pause when Heavy placed the case in the rocket and it started up. Scout whooped and Pyro taunted, and then with a massive cheer the REDs dived into the fleeing army of BLU soldiers. Medic hung back with Sniper as he sipped the last of his coffee and folded up his chair. The two watched the others chase the BLUs into the sunset. Medic folded his hands behind his back, "It seems ve have done it my friend….. But ve still must talk about vhat is going on vith you and ze only female on vis team ….Pyro". Sniper groaned.

THE CLONES (or at least my opion on who is one judging by my own logic)

RED Engineer

RED Scout

BLU Demo

BLU SPY  
BLU PYRO

BLU Sniper

BLU Soldier

BLU Medic

BLU Heavy

Originals

All REDs but engineer and scout whose originals are BLU.

TEASER for an upcoming event

"And this is CNN" static "We interrupt this broadcast to warn NYC. You have the horde coming from all si…. " The shadow outline of a man appears "We further interrupt to pass this message to Gre...nn, these people and this world are under our protection, and harming more of them well make things worse for you. We are in New York and I must say we are anxious to meet our employers killer." The figure lights a smoke. A baseball hits him in the head and a voice from off screen yells, "Dumkophs, I told you not to play inside". The man on screen stands and walks off screen. "We suggest everyone does not panic, now back to your program." "In other news it seems we have protectors."

**Coming Monday**


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